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Peffley: This Thanksgiving try a living cornucopia for centerpiece

Thanksgiving is purely American

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, our purely American holiday. The first day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789 at the request of Congress for our young country to be unified in Thanksgiving and Praise to our heavenly Father. A proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 declared Thanksgiving to be an official holiday and in 1941 Congress set the date as the fourth Thursday of November.

Remembering grade school history, the Pilgrims arrived on Plymouth Rock in December 1620 after a journey where many died. In the spring of 1621 a native Indian, Squanto, taught the pilgrims to grow corn, beans, and pumpkins, which helped them survive the summer. In the autumn of 1621, a grand feast was organized to thank God for his blessings having survived in this new land, and, as tradition tells us was “the first thanksgiving feast.” It likely was brimming with late summer and autumn crops — corn, pumpkins, and squash. What does this have to do with a cornucopia?

The cornucopia is the most common symbol of the bounty of vegetables associated with Thanksgiving. The cornucopia is also known as a “horn of plenty,” a horn-shaped container filled with abundance of the Earth’s harvest. The original cornucopia was a curved goat’s horn filled with fruits and grains. According to Greek legend, as a goat nurtured the infant Greek God, Zeus, she broke one of her horns and offered it to the baby. As the contents of the goat’s horn nurtured Zeus, so the nutritious vegetables commonly placed in a cornucopia nurture us. In any event, cornucopias can be expected as traditional centerpieces on Thanksgiving tables or sideboard displays.

Make your own living cornucopia using a store-bought cornucopia basket. Fill it with vegetables harvested from your personal bounty tended with your own hands or fill with purchased produce. The idea is to make a living cornucopia, not plastic or silk recreations of the real things. Most cornucopias have some sort of squash or pumpkin, harkening back to the pilgrims; scour your garden for remnants of this year’s crops; carrots with the tops removed are long and slender and fit nicely into voids. Let other vegetables spill out from the mouth of the horn. The size of the horn will determine how many vegetables are needed to fill the container. You may be surprised that the horn fills up rather quickly.

President Washington’s proclamation is 432 words in length and can be found at thanksgiving-day.org. Blessed Thanksgiving wishes to all.

ELLEN PEFFLEY taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. You can email her at gardens@suddenlink.net.